Based off of the bestselling author's family history, this novel tells
the story of Kunta Kinte, who is sold into slavery in the United States
where he and his descendants live through major historic events.
When Roots was first published forty years ago, the book electrified
the nation: it received a Pulitzer Prize and was a #1 New York Times
bestseller for 22 weeks. The celebrated miniseries that followed a year
later was a coast-to-coast event-over 130 million Americans watched some
or all of the broadcast. In the four decades since then, the story of
the young African slave Kunta Kinte and his descendants has lost none of
its power to enthrall and provoke.
Now, Roots once again bursts onto the national scene, and at a time
when the race conversation has never been more charged. It is a book for
the legions of earlier readers to revisit and for a new generation to
discover.
To quote from the introduction by Michael Eric Dyson: Alex Haley's
Roots is unquestionably one of the nation's seminal texts. It affected
events far beyond its pages and was a literary North Star.... Each
generation must make up its own mind about how it will navigate the
treacherous waters of our nation's racial sin. And each generation must
overcome our social ills through greater knowledge and decisive action.
Roots is a stirring reminder that we can achieve these goals only if
we look history squarely in the face.
The star- studded cast in this new event series includes Academy
Award-winners Forest Whitaker and Anna Paquin, Laurence Fishburne,
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Derek Luke, Grammy Award-winner Tip T.I. Harris,
and Mekhi Phifer. Questlove of The Roots is the executive music producer
for the miniseries's stirring soundtrack.
